Dramatic Showhouse Rooms

Slide 1 Of Dramatic Showhouse Rooms

Emily Followill

In design, the grass is always greener. Diminutive rooms leave designers wishing for larger proportions to let them spread their creative wings. And when a room clocks in at a whopping 17x30 feet—like the dining room that Melanie Turner designed for the Atlanta Symphony Showhouse—it can lack the intimacy that is ideal for social gatherings.

“The space was too large for one table and one chandelier,” explains Turner. “It needed heft that would offset the spacious dimensions.”

To create that “heft,” she placed two square Regency-style tables at one end of
the room and a sitting area at the opposite end. The twin tables can be pushed together or pulled apart, making room for four additional guests. Around the white-topped tables Turner mixed two seating styles: contemporary white frames covered in leather and settees with slim, modern profiles that are softened by theatrical mauve-colored velvet. Matching crystal chandeliers from France hang above the tables.

Following service at the American embassy in China, the owner of this showhouse venue was presented with a hand-painted mural—and its installation—by the Chinese government. (With such provenance, chances are the mural isn’t going anywhere.)

When Matthew Patrick Smyth agreed to re-envision the grand dining room for
Kips Bay, the painting was part of the package. “The mural wrapped the entire room and couldn’t be touched,” says Smyth. “The purpose of a showhouse is to show all that you can do, so this mural really made the design a challenge.”

“A dining room is my favorite space to design,” says Smyth. “It’s a fantasy room, primarily used at night, when people want to be entertained visually. With all the beautiful elements, from china to crystal and silver, a dining room offers something for guests to remember.”

French chairs from the 1950s circle the round table draped with a silk celadon skirt and an embroidered linen topper. He updated the chairs with brown suede, providing happy contrast to the original white frames.

Kay McKallagat doesn’t regard a dining room as a pretty showplace visited only when a holiday or family gathering occurs. She’s convinced that contemporary homeowners want to use the room for a variety of purposes, so she decided to test her theory on the showhouse room she designed.

The space already boasted beautiful woodwork, including ceiling beams. But because the beams had been stained dark brown before McKallagat took the reins, the wood made the space look like what she describes as a brown cave.

White paint between the beams now tempers the darkness, introducing a chic attitude with a light-refracting, high-gloss finish. The ivory-colored walls, gracefully stenciled with an airy vine pattern in shiny gray, also send light bouncing around the room.

The lesson in contrasts continues on the furniture, where a mahogany table is
a foil for French chairs covered in white linen fabric. A light-colored rug cushions the floor. Secured to the woodwork above the mantel, an existing mirror twinkles with a fresh gold-leaf finish.

In design, good bones are half the battle. So when Michael Carter was presented with this sitting room, he jumped at the chance to work with an architecturally first-rate space with beautiful millwork that included deep crown moldings and a striking broken-pediment fireplace overmantel.

Seating spans a breadth of styles. The sofa is sumptuous in mouse gray velvet and faces a pair of antique shield-back armchairs covered in a slate-and-white damask pattern. Nailheads emphasize the lines of an armchair wearing a silvery cotton velvet.

“I knew I wanted to implement some changes that would highlight the millwork details instead of letting them recede into all-white walls of paint,” says Carter.

To begin the color scheme, Carter chose two grays for the paneled walls. They are soft colors, he explains, like pencil lead. One shade apart, the darker color adds depth to the moldings. A band of gold further accentuates the crown molding and echoes other gilded elements like the cocktail table, a floor lamp, and a clock that hangs over the mantel.

It would be easy for a library paneled entirely in antique Norfolk pine to speak in a schoolmarmish tone. But designer Celerie Kemble coaxed it into unwinding. Hot colors and glamorous surfaces prompted the room to undo the top button of its blouse—and even flirt a little.

“This was meant to be a woman’s library,” says Kemble. “The idea was to create a space that was sophisticated but fun.”

The room’s focal point is the big window framing an elongated tête-à-tête covered in tone-on-tone pink stripes. With the garden view, the tête-à-tête and a marble garden stool foster serenity and good conversation. Grand drapery panels fall from a shapely cornice with cutout details that span the width of the tall, statement-making window.

Positioned in front of bookshelves filled with fashion, poetry, and contemporary literature titles, a tufted ivory sofa repeats the tone of leather insets that back each shelf. The sofa’s sexy, feminine shape is enhanced with fringe applied along the base for an interesting textural detail.

The living room that Mary Douglas Drysdale transformed at the Richmond Showhouse was classic in style and gracious in its dimensions. But what it provided in area, it neglected in light. Despite three sets of French doors leading to a porch, natural light was limited and thus a challenge.

“From the get-go, I imagined this space to be light with everything in white and off-white tones,” says Drysdale. “I accented the space by picking up the wood tones set by the floor.”

The drapery panels are made from alpaca cloth that is embroidered in a geometric pattern, repeating the room’s signature motif. The pattern, designed by Drysdale, most notably appears on the room’s stenciled floor but also on smaller accessories like the throw and the shimmery toss pillows.

Arranged around the fireplace and anchored by a sisal rug with a stenciled border, the principal furniture grouping features two sofas placed at right angles and three side chairs that float around a cocktail table with turned legs.